'Flaw' in Electronic Health Record Blamed for Medical Error Involving Ebola Patient

(CNSNews.com) - When a sick Liberian man walked into Texas Presbyterian Hospital last month, "Protocols were followed by both the physician and the nurses," the hospital said in a statement released Thursday night.

The man told a nurse he had come from West Africa, where an Ebola epidemic is raging.

"However, we have identified a flaw in the way the physician and nursing portions of our electronic health records (EHR) interacted in this specific case."

The hospital said its electronic health records include "separate physician and nursing workflows."

The hospital said the Liberian man's travel history was located in the nurses' portion of the EHR, but -- "As designed, the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow."

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